fi tness & wellbeing
EMBRACING HEALTH
DOES THE FITNESS INDUSTRY REALLY WANT TO ENGAGE IN THE HEALTH AGENDA? DR JOHN SEARLE OBE LOOKS AT THE OPPORTUNITIES TO JOIN THE DOTS AND FULLY EMBRACE THIS OPPORTUNITY
W
hen I had a career change from medicine to personal training, three things became
clear to me. This clarity increased during my relatively short time as the Fitness Industry Association’s (FIA) honorary chief medical officer. First, much of the poor health and illness in the UK – and most of the Western world – is due to physical inactivity. The default mode of most people is sedentary. Secondly, the fi tness industry has the
knowledge and expertise to change this. The recommendations for health from the four chief medical offi cers of the UK nations, as well as the American College
of Sports Medicine (ACSM) – published in 2011 – concern all the components of health and fi tness, not just cardiovascular fi tness. It is the fi tness industry which knows how to address these. Thirdly, there is a progression from
physical activity (the movement of skeletal muscle which results in energy expenditure), through exercise (physical activity which is planned, structured and repetitive, and has as its objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fi tness) to physical fi tness (carrying out daily tasks with vigour and alertness, without undue fatigue, with ample energy to pursue leisure and to meet unforeseen emergencies). Furthermore,
the greater the intensity of exercise, the greater the health benefi ts. But over recent years I have
Gyms must include the over-55s, adjusting the gym environment so they feel welcome
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increasingly been asking myself: “Do we actually want to engage in the health agenda, by using our knowledge and expertise as an industry to make a signifi cant impact on the health of the population?” The benefi ts for the nation’s wellbeing and fi nances would be huge if we were to do so. Yes, it’s true that 12 per cent of the population have a gym membership, but we still know little about its effectiveness in improving their long-term health. The question has to be asked: As an industry, is our goal primarily to be commercially successful, confi ning our expertise and facilities to those who want ‘to look good and feel great’? Is it possible to join up the dots between what we know in our industry and what the population needs? Undoubtedly this is a key goal at the national level of the FIA and REPs, but effective change always requires a bottom-up approach as well as a top-down one. As someone who is deeply committed to our industry and who has both worked at the coalface of fi tness practice and observed the industry across the country, here are some proposals about what we can do to join up the dots. These fall under three headings: fi tness professional practice, clubs, and national organisations.
Fitness professional practice As fi tness professionals, there are three important factors that we need
august 2012 © cybertrek 2012
Medical Wellness
DIEGO CERVO /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
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